The United Arab Emirates – Shawarma

by Adelina Aida

This dish is traditionally from Arabic cuisine and very famous in the Middle East. This is a type of proper meal in which meat and some vegetables is wrapped in a form of bread. This is very similar to WRAPS but the only difference is outer bread. The bread or chapati used in shawarma is thicker and made up of plain flour, yeast, etc. The cooking method of bread is totally different from the Wraps found out there.

This is made from chicken which is grilled over the heater in a form of a stack. They used to cut the sides of chicken when shawarma is going to prepare. The rotating stack is used to cook the meat by the heater. The moving meat is cooked and cut when required. There are much different cooking methods used to prepare the shawarma like grilling, frying, steaming, etc.

Different names of the same dish :

1. Shawarma
2. Chawarma
3. Shovarma
4. Shaurma, etc

ORIGIN OF THIS DISH

Place of origin is Ottaman Empire

This dish is originated from Emirati cuisine which is from the LEVANTINE ARAB STATES. Levantine cuisine is a mixture of different areas of the middle east. This dish is then a part of Levantine cuisine means it has all the countries which use to cook and serve this dish in their national cuisine.

Levantine cuisine incules the geagraphical varieties :

1. Iraqi cuisine
2. Emirati cuisine
3. Egyptian cuisine
4. Turkish cuisine
5. Syrian cuisine
6. Lebanese cuisine
7. Jordanian cuisine, etc

COOKING EQUIPMENT USED IN ROASTING MEAT

The first and foremost use of the equipment in cooking the meat is Vertical Rotisserie.

ROTISSERIE

Rotisserie is the equipment used to grill the meat in front of the heater. It is a vertical rod that rotates slowly against the heat. It is also known as Spit rotating. This equipment or cooking tool can be horizontal and vertical but mainly vertical rotisserie is used to make shawarma.

This is the heating burner which is burning either by Charcoal for smoky effect or by normal stove heating. This rotating spit is rotating slowly to cook the meat from all the sides.

DIFFERENT ELEMENTS OF THE DISH

This dish is made up from all the main elements like bread, meat, vegetables and some sauces. We have now varieties to make this dish from different elements used in this dish. Like we can have varieties by adding different meat, by different cooking technique. different vegetables, different sauces, etc.

We can have different varieties of according to the meat types :

1. Chicken shawarma
2. Beef shawarma
3. Mutton shawarma
4. Fish shawarma
5. Prawns shawarma
6. Camel meat shawarma, etc.

Varieties of shawarma according to the cooking techniques :

1. Chicken grill shawarma
2. Fried chicken shawarma
3. baked beef shawarma
4. Mutton chop shawarma
5. Fried fish shawarma
6. Roasted chicken shawarma
7. Steamed meat shawarma
8. Zinger shawarma
9. Patti meat shawarma, etc

Different other varieties :

1. Spicy shawarma
2. Veg shawarma
3. Kabab shawarma
4. Chicken Kofta shawarma
5. White sauce shawarma, etc.

Cuisine = Levantine cuisine

Course = snack, lunch, dinner

Yield = 5 person

Serving = hot

Time required = 30 minutes

INGREDIENTS OF MAKING SHAWARMA

For chicken

1. Chicken boneless chunks 250 grams
2. Salt 1 teaspoon
3. Pepper flakes 1 tablespoon
4. Yogurt 120 grams
5. Cream 120 grams
6. Butter 6 tablespoons
7. Paprika powder 1 teaspoon

For sauce

1. Milk 1 cup
2. Morzerella cheese 1/2 cup
3. Thyme 1 teaspoon
4. Plain flour 2 tablespoons
5. Butter 2 tablespoons
6. Mayoniese 4 tablespoons

Vegetables

1. Cucumber longitudinal slices 6
2. Carrot shredded 1/2 cup
3. Cabbage 1/2 cup
4. Capsicum 1/2 cup

COOKING DIRECTION

For chicken

1. Chicken cubes must be washed and dried completely, add salt, pepper, paprika, yogurt, and cream into the chicken and make smooth marination of chicken and let it rest for 20 minutes.
2. It makes the chicken more juicy and tender when cooked and full of flavors.
3. Now either you can cook it over vertical rotisserie or in a cooking pan.
4. For rotisserie, arrange the chicken pieces into the equipment and turn on the burner to start up the cooking procedure.
5. For the cooking pan, add butter and chicken into it and cook it for 15 minutes.
6. Chicken is in small pieces, so it cooked easily in yogurt and cream to retain the chicken flavors with spices.
7. When chicken is cooked and turned brown over the outer top of its surface, let it set for assembling.

For sauce

1. Add butter and plain flour into the pan and turn on the heat.
2. When flour starts roasting add milk with cheese into the butter-flour mixture.
3. Now add seasonings and cook until the sauce thickened.
4. Let it cool before serving.

Shawarma making

• Take a thick pita bread and add white sauce over it.
• Now arrange the cooked chicken into vertical direction.
• Arrange the vegetables over arranged chicken.
• Now drizle some ketchup.
• Roll up the pita bread like the roll or wrap.
• Serve 🙂